Welcome to Rewatching Angel, the part of the blog where I rewatch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off: Angel. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love these shows so many years ago.

Ground State

• Wisconsin, 1985…
• A family of three are welcomed to Thorpe Academy where Gwen Raiden is about to become a student.
• Apparently, she’s… different.
• Her parents are leaving her there until June.
• Gwen’s first rule is to stay away from the other students.
• She’s not allowed to touch anyone… even with heavily gloved hands.
• It’s like Frozen all over again.
• When another kid tries to befriend her on the playground and hands her a toy car, she accidentally electrocutes the boy.
• For our body count, I’m going to go ahead and assume that kid died.
• At Cordelia’s apartment, Angel and Fred work on boxing things up.
• He asks if Phantom Dennis knows anything about where Cordy has been for three months.
• Fred says he’s just mad that they haven’t brought her back already.
• Meanwhile, Wesley is fighting a demon.
• Angel appears and asks if he needs help, but Wes handily cuts the demon in half.
• He’s got a new crew.
• Angel wants to thank him for finding him and bringing him up from the ocean floor.
• Angel tells him that he had a lot of time to think down there and, as far as he’s concerned, they’re okay now.
• From the look on Wesley’s face, he’s not okay.
• However, he does hand Angel a file of everything he’s been able to find out about Cordelia’s disappearance.
• This leads Angel to someone called Dinza, whose lair can only be entered by the dead.
• Dinza is not pretty… but she knows enough about Angel and that he was lost… asking him if he misses the sound of the waves.
• She knows about lost love.
• Dinza tells Angel that she is far away and needs him no longer.
• She tells him that what he seeks is inside the Axis of Pythia.
• Whatever that is.
• Dinza then tells Angel that she would love to keep him, but he has so much more to lose.
• Elsewhere, someone else is looking for the Axis of Pythia, claiming it’s worth $33 million.
• This very grown up Gwen Raiden is being hired to steal the Axis for a client.
• Fred’s research turns up that the Axis can be used to find souls across dimensions.
• The Axis is being auctioned… and since they can’t afford to buy it, they’re gonna have to steal it.
• I think they’re gonna cross paths with this Gwen character.
• Wes and Lilah are still getting intimate on the regular.
• Gwen begins her heist by using her powers to take down the security grid.
• Meanwhile, Team Angel scales the fence, then takes out all the power… in the parking garage.
• Good thing Gwen hit the alarm, huh?
• Angel gets to the vault and uses an aerosol spray to reveal the lasers.
• But then the bars drop.
• Angel tries to lift the bars, but Gwen drops down from inside and tells him she closed his access for a reason.
• Then she uses her power to bend the lasers out of her way.
• Angel tries to reason with her, asking to use the Axis to find Cordelia and then she can have it for whatever she wants.
• Then the alarm goes off.
• Gunn is able to slip under the bars and grabs Gwen.
• She electrocutes him, killing him.
• Then she manages to restart his heart.
• Fred and Angel need to get Gunn to the hospital and Gwen gets away with the Axis.
• Lilah is watching Connor, sleeping with a group of homeless people.
• Angel finds Lilah spying on his son.
• But he’s not there for Connor… he’s there for Lilah.
• He wants to know who was stealing the Axis of Pythia.
• In return for information, Angel will forget that Lilah is within 50 yards of his son.
• Then he reveals that he can smell her and Wesley all over each other.
• Fred nearly has a nervous breakdown.
• She’s tired of being the one who has been holding things together.
• Gunn dying for a second is her last straw.
• Gwen is at her client’s building and Angel is right behind her.
• But she doesn’t see him in the reflection on the elevator door.
• They fight, and she gives him a heavy dose of electricity… starting his heart.
• Which leads to them making out?
• Her client double crossed her, though.
• She and Angel are trapped in the elevator.
• The elevator was designed to keep her from accessing a current, so she can’t electrify her way out.
• Angel is able to break through the wall and access the electricity, saving them both.
• Angel handily beats the crap out of Gwen’s client’s goons.
• Then Gwen goes directly to the client.
• Angel stops her from killing him, and she walks away empty handed.
• Back at the hotel, Angel uses the Axis to locate Cordelia.
• He tells Fred and Gunn that she’s on that higher plane, surrounded by light.
• They’re resigned to let Cordelia be who/what she is on that higher plane…
• But she’s up there screaming at him to get her out of there.
• Body count: Humans – 1; Demons – 1